


Call It Survival

by skyline_blue



Category: Charlie Bone Universe - Jenny Nimmo
Genre: (but he is), Gen, Grimwald walked into his death scene thinking it was his turn to murder, Grimwald? an evil creep, Missing Scene, but specifically when people try to murder him over a box, charlie's here in spirit, dagbert's repentance arc, featuring: lyell's amazing luck in surviving in general, finally a competent adult, hes a minor character even in his own story, i guess i should tag major character death but guys its grimwald, in which an actual 14 year old kills a man and no competent adult does anything to address this, mainly of dealing with his family but also in general, manfred: i aint afraid of no ghost, mrs kettle is awesome, paton is perpetually tired, so is tancred, thats how he solves his problems i guess, the bloors are surprisingly less murdery but willing to go along
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25984087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyline_blue/pseuds/skyline_blue
Summary: Lord Grimwald dies; the oceans calm; Dagbert and friends have a crisis (or many).Or:Missing scenes from book 8 surrounding Grimwald's (dare i say it) murder.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Call It Survival

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this 2 years ago and idk what I was thinking  
> [please note that I am struggling with this website's formating _WHERE IS THE ITALICS_ ]
> 
> (Notes I apparently wrote 2 years ago:  
> This is part of my ‘missing scenes’ collection of reactions to Grimwald’s death, because canon (I hate to say it) didn’t really give me enough, though granted, it had about half a dozen other arcs to finish at the same time. So, naturally I am correcting this. Most of the first half will focus on Dagbert, because his arc was confusing me and because he had the arguably most fallout from his father’s death, then it’ll bounce to Manfred, then briefly touch Lysander, then to Cook and finally we’ll wrap it all up with Paton. Enjoy! (even tho no one will read this because the Charlie Bone fandom is just me and my sad life haha) It takes place just after Grimwald’s death and Dagbert being sent to Mrs. Kettle by Charlie.)

That Tuesday afternoon, an hour after Lord Grimwald’s death, Dagbert stood in front of the Kettle Shop. His hands shook. He glanced over at the three cats who had guided him there from the edge of Bloor’s Academy. It was here that Charlie had told him to go, but what next?

The cats purred at him, which was strange. They had only ever been unfriendly to Dagbert before, but then again, that was before. Now he wasn’t sure who he was. 

He raised one fist to knock, the one with the sea-gold charms. In the other, his knuckles whitened around the newly-shrunk Sea Globe. This was it. His last chance to turn back, to go tell the Bloors that it was an accident spurred by a curse, that he was fully on their side. It was his last chance to stay neutral, to get out of this terrible war fueled by nine hundred years of hatred. All Dagbert had to do was walk away. He could go to the fish shop, just across the street. 

But wasn’t that the same as giving up? To turn back on his destiny? To lose all meaning in life? Hadn’t he already chosen, the moment his father came back to Bloor’s?

His hands shook as he knocked on the door. The cats looked on with approval in their golden eyes. 

The door was opened by a muscular woman with shiny red hair. She frowned at Dagbert, but waited for him to speak.

“I-I switched.” Dagbert stuttered. “My fa-Lord Grimwald’s dead. Charlie sent me- he told me to t-tell you ‘Matilda’.”

The woman’s eyebrows rose with the grace of someone who had seen too many shocking things to continue being surprised. “Well, then you’d better come in, dear.” She opened the door wider and stood back to admit him. The cats stayed outside, purred at the woman, who smiled at them, and then bounded off into the late afternoon. The woman closed the door, then ushered him to the back of her shop and into a chair in her living room. She turned her back to him and started making tea on the stove.

“I am Katya Kettle, Mrs. Kettle to Charlie and his friends.” She said, still busy with the stove. “Looks like you got yourself into a pinch, hm?”

“Charlie helped me,” Dagbert said awkwardly. “He did most of the work.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Mrs. Kettle muttered. “That boy needs saving every other day, seems like. So, how did you come to be at my door in the middle of a school week?” The unspoken question of why are you here and why did you change lingered in the air.

“...My name is Dagbert Endless.” Dagbert was hesitant to trust her, but Charlie did, and Dagbert trusted Charlie. “You probably know about me from…” He gestured vaguely. The Tancred Incident was evident. “It was an accident, I swear, but I lost control. My father...my family has a curse. When a son turns twelve, he must kill his father. My father brought me to Bloor’s to try to break the curse, or control me if it didn’t work, and as an added bonus he would strengthen the alliance between them.”

Here he was interrupted by the tea kettle’s whistle. Mrs. Kettle once again busied herself with the stove. “Go on dear, I’m listening.”

“..Ok…” Dagbert tore his eyes from the stove and tried to remember. “Two weeks ago, my father showed up at the school right after my 12th birthday. I was scared, so I asked Charlie for help since I knew the Bloors would side with my father. They needed him to drown Charlie’s parents, I don’t know why. But I asked Charlie, and he said no because of...” Again Dagbert gestured to mean Tancred’s death. “But for some reason, he later decided to help me? And yesterday he told me to hide my charms because Joshua Tilpin tried to steal them and then this morning…” Dagbert had no idea how to describe this morning. It was so long ago, something out of someone else’s life. 

“Go on.”

“Um, so, anyway, this morning I had a fight with Joshua and got my charms back, and then Charlie found me in the Music Tower and then we…”

“And then you faced your father.” Mrs. Kettle’s face was grave. She seemed to understand. “So you…?”

Dagbert shook his head. No. Dagbert hadn’t killed him. He had been so ready to throw the charms into the Sea Globe, to save the world from drowning, to be drowned himself and then- then Grimwald was too strong and Dagbert was too scared.

Mrs. Kettle looked surprised. “Oh?”

“I- I faced him, and he told me to give him the charms,” -here Dagbert unconsciously clutched the charms tighter in his fist- “but I didn’t. I was going to throw them in the Sea Globe, but…”

“You were scared?” 

Dagbert stared into his tea cup. “Yes.” he whispered. “I couldn’t do it.”

Mrs. Kettle took a seat in the chair across from him. “Dagbert Endless, it is perfectly reasonable to be scared, especially when it is your father threatening you.” she declared. “But, then how was Grimwald defeated?”

Dagbert stared at her. “He, uh, well, one of Charlie’s friends was there too and there was a giant army of ghosts and they forced my father into the Sea Globe. And he-” Dagbert paused and put the Sea Globe on the table, “he drowned.”

The Globe sparkled and shimmered between them. Dagbert and Mrs. Kettle looked at them, one in fascination, the other in resignation. 

Mrs. Kettle broke the silence. “So, Dagbert, what do you want?” She spread her hands open on the table. 

“...what?”

“Why are you here? Why did you want to save Charlie’s parents?” Why change?

“Um, I-I was tired of being scared. And, if I helped Charlie, maybe…it would make up for Tancred?”

Mrs. Kettle raised her eyebrows again.

“No, it was- when it happened, I lost control. The world turned to water around me, I just wanted my charms back- they’re my safety! And slowly, I’ve been..coming to the realization that what the Bloors are doing is wrong, what I was doing was bad, and I can’t just ignore it anymore.”

“I understand.” Mrs. Kettle finally gave him a small smile. “Just down the street, there is a shop of stone. Long ago, we were forced to pick a side, and I and the stone mason chose differently. That choice changed everything.”

Dagbert nodded unsteadily. “I just want to stop being scared.”

She looked at him wisely. “At one point, everyone discovers that this fight isn’t about themselves. That is the moment we choose.”

There was silence for a moment. The tea swirled and the wind blew and Dagbert tried to stop thinking. 

“Why would Charlie help me?” He voiced aloud. “I killed his friend. Why would he trust me? Why does he care?”

A smile crossed her face again. “Charlie is an extraordinary boy. He believes so easily and cares so easily. He saw you, Dagbert Endless, as someone who needed help, and was powerless to not help. I believe he is incapable of not reacting to the wrongs the Bloors have done. And if he trusted you, then so do I.”

Humbled, Dagbert hunched over his tea. “I think I know that now. And now…” He trailed off. “Now, I’m ready to help too. I think.”

Mrs. Kettle gave him another warm smile. “If that’s what you want, then you truly are worthy of being called a child of the Red King.”

Despite the fact that Dagbert had entered the room a scared little boy, despite not knowing Mrs. Kettle for long, and despite being on ‘the other side’ until this morning, this was the first moment that Dagbert had felt safe in a long, long time.

**(an hour and a little earlier)**

Hiding under a piano, Manfred Bloor discovered, was not the best front row seat to watch the endowed fight. It was uncomfortable, made his leg muscles sore, and was not very hidden. 

There was also a very great chance that he would be discovered. 

Really, this whole situation he blamed on Charlie Bone. Then again, Charlie was responsible for everything that went wrong, was he not? This time though, was different. This time wouldn’t just cause the loss of control over an endowed kid, or not getting revenge on someone who deserved it, no. This time Manfred’s home could be taken away because Charlie’s father would ruin them.

Grimwald said something to Dagbert in a booming voice, indecipherable to Manfred because of the waves and echoes in the ballroom. Dagbert stood still, Charlie right behind him for some reason. Maybe moral support? Who cared. Manfred was just here as backup in case Charlie called in his own backup.

...Which arrived right on time, just as Grimwald’s wave came sweeping down over the boys. Manfred heard drums and already he had a headache. Great. The only backup Manfred couldn’t beat (and was not scared of at all, thank you very much) was the one Charlie called in.

Manfred could only hide under the piano as the eerie watery light clashed with reverberating drumbeats and harsh red fire. The army of spirits closed in on Grimwald, the waves he threw at them sputtered and rebounded until they swallowed him. The choking, gargling Sea Globe devoured him, mind, heart and soul. Manfred looked on in shock.

He had been trapped by those same spirits, seen them fight beasts and stone and even bring Count Harken himself to a standstill, but straight up murder? Manfred had been kidding himself.

After they leave, he still crouched under the grand piano and questioned how it came to this, to murder and lies. How far would they--even these kids--go in this war?

The parting words of “there was no other way” echoed in his head as he stood to tell his great-grandfather the news.

**(at the same time)**

As the spirits closed in on Grimwald, the line blurred. Lysander would be lying to Charlie later, when saying “there was no other way”. There probably was another way. He just didn’t bother looking for one. 

Grimwald threw out every attack he had, but it only rebounded on himself. The oceans at war, the world of water surrounded everyone. And still the drums beat, still the spirits came on. It was ironic, Lysander thought, being killed by what you thought would save. 

But somewhere in this moment, as the Sea Globe violently embraced its master, the line had become smeared. Was this for Dagbert or for Tancred? Was this to protect or to avenge? Did Grimwald deserve to die like this? Was that even Lysander’s choice to make?

Maybe, he thought, as he handed Dagbert the shrunken Sea Globe, it was a bit of both.

**(Later that night, after Charlie comes to visit Cook and tell her about his day)**

The moment Charlie leaves, Cook slumps down into her rocker and laughs. It is a wild laugh, full of relief and hope. She is free.

She is free. Years ago, when Grimwald had washed away her life and threatened her into changing her name, she had never imagined she would ever be free of him. She thought he would keep killing and threatening and raving until she was old and senile. But no, now he was dead and so was his shadow and he would never threaten her again.

The relief threatens to swallow her. Her hands shake with it. How does she not live in fear when that’s all she’s been doing for the past twenty years? The ingrained instinct to constantly look over her shoulder, to keep her peace a secret, to hide might never go away.

The old dog, Blessed, has no answer for her. He shifts position in front of her stove, fast asleep. Cook looks at him and again the relief threatens to overwhelm her. She thinks back to what Charlie told her. Grimwald, drowned in his own Sea Globe? Someone certainly has a sense of humor. 

She has a few calls to make, though, before she can simply bask in glorious freedom. The first one is to her sister, Pearl. 

Pearl picks up after the first ring. “Hey, Treasure! What are you doing awake? It’s like, midnight where you live!” She says cheerfully. 

Cook gives out a big breath. “He’s gone.” The words contain her hope and joy.

There is a long pause from the other side of the phone. “...Grimwald?” Pearl whispers. 

“Drowned in his own Sea Globe.”

Pearl gives a breathless laugh. “No, really!? Wow. I didn’t- just, wow.”

Cook feels that. “Yes. I know.” There is a smile in her voice, full of not being afraid. The unspoken he’ll never threaten us again is thrumming in the air. Pearl laughs with her, loud and clear and bright, and together, they’re free again. 

They're free, and in the end, Grimwald destroyed himself.

**(A few days later)**

Paton Yewbeam is tired of driving. By now he’s driven across Europe at least three times, and he still needs to go to Ireland to follow up some leads. It’s been a long week. He has too much time to worry, and not enough to get some answers. 

Long story short, he’s tired. 

Which is why he’s here, at this out of the way tavern run by some old friends (endowed, of course), where others like him come to stay while journeying. Conveniently called the King’s Hall, the place has also some of Paton’s informants. The name ‘Yewbeam’ is a powerful one in this part of the endowed country, after all. 

The inside of the building looks its age, dim lights, red walls, but the King’s sigil in gold gleams on the back wall. Paton finds it simultaneously comforting and eerie. 

There are three of his contacts here today. A woman beckons to him from where she is immersed in conversation with an older man and another old woman Paton has only seen here once or twice before. The younger woman’s gusty nature is somewhat tempered today, and the man’s hesitant manner gives nothing about his endowment away. The old woman has shining silver string she’s in the process of knitting with. All three look excited, which is somewhat out of the ordinary. Paton makes his way towards them.

The youngest of the group starts speaking first. “Paton! What a surprise! Do we have news for you!” Her usual energetic nature is aided by gusts of mysterious wind as she gestures. The other two nod in varying degrees of excitement.

Paton nods to the old woman, then drops into a seat. “News?”

The woman nods to the man, who begins the story. “I’ve been hearing rumors that-” here he looks around, despite the tavern noise- “that the Sealord is dead!”

Paton sits back and blinks at the ceiling. “Grimwald?!”

“The very same.” he says. “I’ve heard it was an illusionist that did him in.”

“Nonsense!” the old woman challenges. “I’ve heard it was his son!”

The three begin arguing among themselves, but Paton notices the barkeeper trying to get his attention. 

“If you’ll excuse me for a minute,” Paton says, but the others take no notice, too invested in their argument. He walks casually over to the bar. 

The barkeeper slides him a mug (of coffee). “I assume you’ve heard the latest rumors?”

“The one about Grimwald?” Paton keeps his eyes on the mug as he drinks.

“Indeed. Someone let it slip that he was allied with the new witch, Tilpin, and had a deal with the Bloors because of an old family curse or somethin’.”

Paton nods. “I live in the city. It’s true. So, the son killed him?”

The man shakes his head. “It was a spirit-caller. The Bloors are trying to cover up by saying it was the son.”

Paton’s eyebrows raise. “A what now?”

The barkeeper gives him a grin. “The unexpected happens everyday at that Academy, and you’re surprised? Nah, it wasn’t the son. I heard it from the Cook at the place. She told me to tell you if you stopped by.”

“Well, this is a most unexpected turn of events. It certainly makes my position very different. Thank you.”

The barkeeper shrugs. “Good luck out there, Yewbeam. Things are getting dark.”

Paton nods to him again in thanks, then exits the building, leaving the three others to their still ongoing argument.

He looks at the clear night sky. “Lyell, you’ve done it again.”

END

**Author's Note:**

> Surprisingly, Manfred was my favorite part to write. I hope it made sense.  
> (for the low price of a comment you can get more fic! buy it now while the sale lasts)


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